


Happy Together

by bethejerktomybitch



Series: Georgia on my Mind [3]
Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Original Percival Graves deserves to be happy, Original Percival Graves in love, Original Percival Graves is a Good Boss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-26
Updated: 2019-05-26
Packaged: 2020-03-19 22:45:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,029
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18979873
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bethejerktomybitch/pseuds/bethejerktomybitch
Summary: Tina blamed herself. She should’ve realized that Graves hadn’t just been off, should’ve told someone that he was abrasive and ill-tempered and just generally different from the boss she’d grown to respect and even like. If she had, Grindelwald might have been in custody by now.Which was why, when Graves showed up for work one day acting very differently from what she was used to, Tina didn’t want to risk another incident and went straight to President Picquery.Conversely – Percival was trying to not keep smiling like an idiot, he really was. But truth was he hadn’t been this happy in a while, and his aurors probably weren’t used to seeing him like this.Still, reporting him to Seraphina as a possible imposter just because he seemed too happy? He hadn’t thought he’d been doing quite as badly as that.





	Happy Together

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place roughly after chapter 5 of "I Will Show You Love", but can also be read without knowing the main story. Leave a comment if you like it!

_If I should call you up, invest a dime  
_

_And you say you belong to me and ease my mind_

_Imagine how the world could be, so very fine_

_So happy together_

 

_The Turtles - Happy Together_

 

Tina was already at her desk when Graves arrived, which was unusual in and of itself. Normally their boss was the first one in the office and the last one out, even more so after the whole Grindelwald incident, as if he was trying to make up for lost time.

 

The second thing that struck her as odd was that Graves, who never looked anything less than impeccable in an expensive three-piece suit and with his dark hair neatly slicked back, today looked kind of… well, disheveled. His tie wasn’t quite tied properly, his shirt was slightly ruffled and a strand of his hair had apparently escaped the hastily applied pomade, hanging loosely over his forehead. Tina had always had a bit of a crush on her boss, as had a lot of women – and men – at MACUSA, and she honestly thought she looked even more handsome like this, even though a part of her stubbornly insisted that something had to be wrong for him to forgo his usual put-together appearance.

 

“Good morning, Sir.” Tina said when he passed her desk.

 

Graves stopped and looked at her. For a moment Tina shrunk under his gaze, afraid she’d done something wrong without even noticing, but then he smiled – a real, full smile, not a brief twitch of his lips that was all anyone could usually get from him. “Good morning, Goldstein.” he said. “Beautiful day, isn’t it?” He limped on towards his office before she had any chance to reply, and – _Mercy Lewis, was he whistling?_

Tina stared after him, gaping. It wasn’t that Graves wasn’t fundamentally a nice person, and even very kind to his aurors at times, but he just wasn’t overly friendly. He didn’t approve of pointless niceties, believing them nothing but a distraction from the job that needed to be done, and this tendency had only been amplified by the horror he had undergone at Grindelwald’s hands. Graves wasn’t the kind of person who said things like “Beautiful day”, period.

 

Tina bit her lip. Should she report this? After Grindelwald they’d all been urged to report anything that seemed out of the ordinary, and yet she’d fell silly going to anyone with nothing but the fact that Graves seemed too happy.

 

And it probably was silly, wasn’t it? He was probably just in a good mood, for whatever reason. Tina didn't need to ruin that by implying that might have been replaced by an imposter again when that wasn’t the case.

 

Shaking her head slightly, she went back to the file on top of her desk.

 

* * *

 

If that had been the end of it, Tina might have forgotten about it altogether. But later, as they were updating Graves on the progress they’d made on their open cases, Patel confessed that he’d accidentally misfiled an important piece of evidence in the Brubaker case, meaning that Hal Brubaker had a very real chance of going free once again.

 

Every auror in the room held their breath, waiting for Graves’ anger. If there was one thing he hated it was incompetence, and a lot of them had learned that the hard way when they had messed up in a way similar to Patel. Tina still remembered when she’d been a rookie auror and had lost a letter implicating their top suspect; Graves’ stern lecture had followed her for weeks. Later, of course, she’d learned that his anger only meant that he cared and wanted them to be better aurors, but it was imposing to witness nonetheless.

 

Now, however, their boss only shot Patel a glance that was more annoyance than anger. “That was incredibly thoughtless of you, Patel.” he said, unsettlingly calm. “But the harm is done now; I’ll have to see what I can still salvage.” He folded his hands on top of the table. “Well, if that is all, that concludes today’s meeting. Get back to work, everyone.”

 

He got up and headed back towards his office, leaving behind a group of very confused – and in Tina’s case very suspicious – aurors.

 

* * *

 

On her way back up from lunch with Queenie, Tina saw Graves talking to Kenneth Amherst, the head of Internal Administration. He didn’t seem remotely close to hexing Amherst, normally his default state when talking to him, and once he even smiled, nodding to something the other wizard had said.

 

Tina got into the elevator and pushed the button for the executive floor. Graves not doing his very best to get out of a conversation with Amherst – that was the last straw. Something was definitely wrong, and she was going straight to the president about it.

 

Picquery’s secretary was at his desk, shooting her an annoyed glance when he saw her. “What is it, Goldstein?” he snapped.

 

Tina kept herself from rolling her eyes with some effort. She understood why Picquery employed Aidan Miller as her secretary – he was very efficient, and very adept at keeping unwanted visitors out of her office – but there was just something about him that she found incredibly irritating. “I need to talk to the president.” she said, keeping her voice carefully flat. “It’s urgent.”

 

Miller didn’t seem impressed in the slightest, at least until Tina added: “It’s about Director Graves.” Then he actually seemed to consider her, looking her up and down before he said: “I’ll see if Madam President’s available.”

 

He returned moments late, giving her a curt nod. “Go ahead.”

 

Tina had only been inside the president’s office once before, and she still found it just as intimidating – not as intimidating as President Picquery herself, though, sitting behind her massive desk and scrutinizing Tina with an unreadable face. “Miss Goldstein.” she said finally. “Sit.”

 

Her heart pounding in her chest, Tina sat down in one of the two chairs in front of the president’s desk. “You’re here about Director Graves?” Picquery asked, seeming only mildly interested.

 

Tina took a deep breath and nodded. “Yes.” she said, her voice not quite as firm as she would’ve liked it. “He… he’s been off today, acting differently. I just thought that after the whole, ah, incident, you should know.”

 

Picquery’s eyebrows shot up. “Different how?”

 

Tina hesitated, suddenly feeling silly again, but she couldn’t back out now. “He’s too – well, too happy.” she said. “He let another auror off for misfiling evidence this morning, and he’s been talking to Amherst, and I just thought that…”

 

Picquery raised one hand, cutting off her rambling. “You’re sure about this?” she asked sharply.

 

Slowly, Tina nodded and the president sighed. “Alright then.” she said. “Better to be safe than sorry. I’ll handle it. Go back to work, Goldstein.”

 

Tina didn’t dare say anything else. She left, passing Miller’s desk without another word, not entirely sure whether she’d done the right thing.

 

* * *

 

Seraphina sighed again after she’d sent off the memo, allowing herself to close her eyes for just a moment. She hoped to Merlin that Goldstein was wrong; she couldn’t afford another scandal like Grindelwald again. But the girl was right – letting his aurors get away with careless mistakes or talking to Amherst civilly and voluntarily wasn’t like Percival, not at all. Seraphina could only hope that there was another reason for his weird behavior.

 

Five minutes later, the door opened and Percival stepped into her office. There was a spring to his uneven gait, and he didn’t glare at Miller even once. _Something’s wrong alright,_ Seraphina thought.

 

“Sit, Percival.” she said, pointing at the chairs on the other side of her desk. He did as she’d said, and then asked in a mildly curious tone of voice: “Why am I here, Phina?”

 

He didn’t often call her Phina, her nickname from their Ilvermorny days, but the fact that he was using it now made her suddenly sincerely doubt Goldstein’s suspicion that he’d been replaced again. No one but him ever called her Phina these days – her family called her Sera, and the rest of the world called her Madam Picquery. It seemed a detail to insignificant for an imposter to get right; when Grindelwald had worn Percival’s face, she was pretty sure he’d never called her by that nickname.

 

Seraphina leant back in her chair. “Well, apparently some of your aurors think you seem too happy.” she said dryly. “They are worried you might be an imposter again.”

 

He stared at her, visibly taken aback. Eventually he let out a long-suffering sigh. “Goldstein?” he guessed.

 

Seraphina considered denying it, but after a moment she nodded. Percival rubbed the back of his neck, groaning. “Lovely.” he muttered. “So that’s what my life has come to these days.”

 

“Goldstein told me you were talking to Amherst.” Seraphina said mildly. “You understand why I was concerned.”

 

Percival grimaced. “Sure.” he said, sounding only vaguely annoyed. “Give me some veritaserum, then, and let’s get this over with. I’m sure we both have work to get to.”

 

“I didn’t say I thought Goldstein was right.”

 

Once more, he looked surprised. “Why am I really here then?” he asked slowly.

 

This time, it took Seraphina a bit longer to answer. They’d known each other for almost thirty years, ever since they’d been scared eleven-year-olds at Ilvermorny, and yet she hadn’t noticed that for weeks the most dangerous dark wizard of all times had worn the face of the man she considered her best and oldest friend. She hadn’t even suspected while Georgia Kingsley had known within minutes, and since all that had happened their friendship felt fragile, cracked and stretched thin.

 

“Even though you I think you’re yourself, Goldstein is still right.” she said. “You seem different, and I’d like to think I’m still not just your boss but your friend too. Is something going on that I need to be aware of?”

 

Percival was silent for a very long time. He really did seem happier than usual, a relaxed set to his jaw and none of the usual tension in his shoulders. Seraphina wondered suddenly whether that had something to do with Kingsley, and with the fact that as far as she knew he’d stayed with her all through the months between his rescue and coming back to work.

 

“Nothing you need to know.” he said finally. “I’m just doing better, Phina. That’s all.”

 

A small smile tugged at his lips after his words, and Seraphina found herself smiling back. “Alright then.” she said. “Get back to work, and try not to seem too happy. We don’t want any more aurors freaking out.”

 

He let out a snort of amusement and grinned at her before he left. Maybe, Seraphina thought with a warm feeling, their friendship wasn’t as damaged as she’d thought.

 

* * *

 

Tina was deep into a file when she heard the familiar thump-step of Graves’ uneven gait. Her heart immediately picked up speed, blood rushing in her ears as she looked up.

 

Her boss was looking down at her with an expression that she thought was half amusement, half exasperation. “Really, Goldstein?” he asked. “Too happy?”

 

Tina blushed furiously. “I’m sorry, Sir.” she sputtered. “I didn’t – I just thought…”

 

Graves interrupted her with a dismissive gesture. “You actually did a good job noticing.” he said, to Tina’s utter surprise. “As an auror you should always take note of even the most insignificant seeming details. It seems I was right in transferring you back up from wand permits.”

 

Tina blushed even more. Praise from Graves was a rare thing, and she certainly would not have expected it after just having mistakenly reported him to the president. “Thank you, Sir.” she managed to say.

 

Graves gave her a real, actual smile. “Get back to work.” he said, not unkindly, before he strode off to his office, leaving behind a slightly embarrassed but also tremendously pleased Tina.

 

* * *

 

In his office, Percival rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Too happy.” he muttered under his breath, still not quite believing it. If he told Georgia about this, he suspected he’d never hear the end of it.


End file.
